Akademik

(c. 788–820)

Indian philosopher. Born in Kerala, Shankara is acknowledged as the leader of the Hindu revival after the Buddhist period, and a founder of religious orders on the Buddhist model. He led a peripatetic life and wrote a number of treatises, particularly a commentary on the 4th-century Brahmasutra (‘power aphorisms’), and one on the Vedas . Philosophically he was a supporter of the doctrine of advaita, or non-dualism, having affinities with both Buddhism and idealism.